It has become commonplace to trade financial instruments using computer systems. These have, to a large extent, replaced open outcry trading methods in which traders traded face to face on trading floors. Various computerised trading systems have evolved for trading different instruments such as foreign exchange spot (FX Spot), forward rate agreement (FRAs) and other instruments. Some systems are anonymous, in that the counterparties to a trade do not know the identity of other counterparties in the market until a deal has been done. Successful anonymous trading systems have bee operated for a number of years by EBS Dealing Resources, Inc. and by Reuters plc. The latter company has also run a conversational dealing system known as Reuters 2000/1 which computerises the conversational exchange between traders in reaching a deal allowing deal negotiation between traders.
Existing dealing systems have tended to support traders trading a single instrument. In large institutions, where a given trader only trades a single instrument this does not cause any difficulties. However, in smaller institutions, a foreign exchange trader, for example, may trade several types of instruments for one or more currency pairs. It is inconvenient for such a trader to have to use several different trading systems or to have to use a mix of computerised systems and traditional trading methods such as voice brokers.
There is, therefore, a need for a system which integrates trading of a number of instruments on a single platform to simplify trading, particularly for traders in smaller institutions.
Financial markets such as foreign exchange markets can operate at extreme speed. Dealers are required to react to market activity near instantaneously to avoid losing potential deals. As a result, the trader terminal must be visually very simple and easy for the trader to assimilate new or changing information. The ability to trade a number of different instruments from a single terminal adds to the complexity and can lead to more information being presented to the trader.
At any one time, a trader may be involved in many deals, some which will mature into done deals and others which will be cancelled at some stage prior to completion. These deals may be in a variety of instruments. Each of these deals will have instrument specific information which the trader must be able to see to enable him to make the deal. However, displaying all this information on the screen makes the screen visually hard to interpret for the trader and is, therefore, not desirable.